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Go Daddy is an Internet domain registrar and web hosting company, which also sells e-business related software and services.

Founded in 1997 by Bob Parsons, who previously founded the software development company Parsons Technology, Inc., Go Daddy has become the largest ICANN-accredited registrar and the first registrar to surpass Network Solutions in total domain names registered. Go Daddy won the CNET Editor's Choice award in 2001 and the Name Intelligence Largest Net Gain Award in both 2002 and 2003, jumping from fifth largest registrar to third largest overall, trailing only Network Solutions RegisterGenius and Tucows[citation needed]. The Go Daddy Group, which includes Wild West Domains (its resale brand) as well as Blue Razor (its bulk domain brand), is currently the largest registrar in the world.[1]

Since Go Daddy's expanded growth into the information technology industry, it has participated in activities concerning the Internet in general. In the recent past, Go Daddy sued VeriSign, Inc., over the Site Finder controversy which put a wildcard in all domain names causing a web site from VeriSign, Inc. to appear if the domain name had not been registered. This event caused controversy over VeriSign's role as the sole maintainer of the .com and .net domain names. VeriSign pulled the wildcard service after a letter from ICANN. Go Daddy was also more recently sued by Web.com for patent infringement.[2][3]

Go Daddy gained market share against competitor Network Solutions, surpassing them to become the largest domain registrar on April 26, 2005.[4] Speculation into the reasons for this include lower prices by Go Daddy for domain registrations, and the expansion of their product line.[citation needed] As part of their corporate giving, in April 2006, the company donated $10,000 to the OpenSSH development program, which is managed by OpenBSD.[5] They have also donated $10,000 in March 2006 to Perverted-Justice.com in which volunteers pose online as minors to catch child predators.[6]

Contents [hide]
1 Awards
2 Marketing
2.1 The "Go Daddy Girl"
2.2 2005 Super Bowl advertisement
2.3 2006 Super Bowl advertisement
2.4 2007 Super Bowl advertisement
2.5 2008 Super Bowl advertisement
2.6 Reactions
3 Controversies
3.1 Suspension of Seclists.org
3.2 Deletion of FamilyAlbum.com
3.3 Shutdown of Chinese dissidents' sites
4 Cancelled initial public offering
5 References
6 See also
7 External links



[edit] Awards
Go Daddy has won the Arizona Corporate Excellence Award for fastest growing privately held company in 2003 and Named Arizona Hot Growth Company in 2004.[citation needed] Nationally, Go Daddy has been ranked #102 on the Inc. 500 list of fastest-growing privately held companies of 2005.[7] Of the privately held technology companies on the list, Go Daddy ranked #1. Ed Denison Business Leader of the Year, awarded to Bob Parsons at the Arizona Governor's 2005 Innovation Celebration. Go Daddy has also been ranked #20 on the 2005 Deloitte Technology Fast 500.[citation needed]


[edit] Marketing
Go Daddy's advertising is produced in house, and typically emphasizes sexually suggestive material. Featured on their website, most of Go Daddy's commercials began with the 2005 Super Bowl advertisement, and from there went further to other television stations, with many being rejected for content. CEO Bob Parsons refers to the marketing as "GoDaddy-esque" which he describes as "fun, edgy and a bit inappropriate."[8]


[edit] The "Go Daddy Girl"
Most of the TV ads star current WWE Diva Candice Michelle, in some sort of sexual-related theme. Candice Michelle has been referred to as "Miss GoDaddy.com" or "The Go Daddy Girl" by fans and on WWE TV shows, where she also does the "Go Daddy Dance" (twirling her arms around her body while slowly turning) as part of her wrestling gimmick.


[edit] 2005 Super Bowl advertisement
In 2005, the company produced a commercial to parody the controversy over an incident that occurred during the previous year's Super Bowl halftime show. It was aired in its first scheduled time slot, but was pulled from its second spot by FOX following reported complaints from the NFL.

Although the ad did not go over well with some viewers,[9] Go Daddy saw traffic to its website increase considerably more than to the sites of other Super Bowl advertisers.[citation needed]


[edit] 2006 Super Bowl advertisement
Candice Michelle appeared in the Super Bowl XL advertisement for Go Daddy. Approval of the advertisement was tough to achieve, with 13 versions getting rejected. The 14th version submitted was finally deemed "acceptable" on February 2.[citation needed] WWE announced that since the ad that aired at the Super Bowl was a highly edited version of the original ad, they would show the full, uncensored ad the day after on Monday Night RAW.[10]


[edit] 2007 Super Bowl advertisement
Go Daddy purchased advertising for Super Bowl XLI. According to CEO Bob Parsons, two ads were rejected by CBS for content. It was announced on January 29th that the third ad has been approved to air, featuring Ms. Michelle being sprayed with champagne with the Orange County Choppers crew and IndyCar driver Danica Patrick in a "marketing department meeting".


[edit] 2008 Super Bowl advertisement
This article or section contains information about a scheduled or expected TV advertisement
It may contain tentative information; the content may change as the event approaches and more information becomes available.

On August 13, 2007 Bob Parsons originally announced that Go Daddy may be sitting out Super Bowl XLII. "Advertising during the Super Bowl is 'super' expensive. The total cost will exceed 10 million dollars," said Parsons. "There's always the possibility that we might not be able to get an appropriately edgy ad approved. All this considered, there's a strong argument for staying on the sidelines this year and taking that Super Bowl advertising money and using it for other opportunities," he added. [1] However, on January 28, 2008, during a telecast of World Wrestling Entertainment's RAW program on USA Network in a reverse of field, it was disclosed by Go Daddy spokesperson (and WWE diva) Candice Michelle that there will be an ad during the game, which featured a "behind the scenes" look into that ad.


[edit] Reactions
Go Daddy's 2007 Super Bowl ad was criticized, in The New York Times as being "cheesy";[11] in The National Review as "raunchy, 'Girls-Gone-Wild' style";[12] and "just sad" by Barbara Lippert in Adweek, who gave the ad a "D".[13]

However, Reprise Media, reviewing the success of Super Bowl advertising in getting potential customers online, listed the 2007 commercial as one of only eight "Touchdown"-worthy ads among the day's high-priced advertisers.[14] IAG Research, which rated the effectiveness of likeability and memorability of the ads, ranked Go Daddy's spot as second for most-recalled.[15]


[edit] Controversies

[edit] Suspension of Seclists.org
On January 24, 2007, Go Daddy deactivated the domain of computer security site, Seclists.org, taking 250,000 pages of security content offline.[16] The shutdown resulted from a complaint from MySpace to Go Daddy regarding usernames and passwords posted a week earlier to the full-disclosure mailing list and archived on the Seclists.org site as well as many other websites. Seclists.org administrator Gordon Lyon, who goes by the handle "Fyodor", provided logs to CNET News.com showing Go Daddy de-activated the domain 52 seconds after leaving him a voicemail, and he had to go to great lengths to get the site reactivated. Go Daddy general counsel Christine Jones stated that Go Daddy's terms of service "reserves the right to terminate your access to the services at any time, without notice, for any reason whatsoever." Lyon has since set up a Web site critical of Go Daddy's handling of the complaint against SecLists, at NoDaddy.com, which was donated to him by a former customer of the registrar.[17]


[edit] Deletion of FamilyAlbum.com
On December 19, 2006 GoDaddy received a third party complaint of invalid domain contact information in the Whois database for the domain FamilyAlbum.com.[18] GoDaddy wrote a letter to the owner of FamilyAlbum.com saying "Whenever we receive a complaint, we are required by ICANN regulations to initiate an investigation as to whether the contact data displaying in the Whois database is valid data or not."[18] "On 12/19/2006 we sent a notice to you at the admin/tech contact email address and the account email address informing you of invalid data in breach of the domain registration agreement and advising you to update the information or risk cancellation of the domain. The contact information was not updated within the specified period of time and we canceled the domain," GoDaddy added.[18] The editor of "Domain Name Wire" said that since domain names are valuable, it was reasonable to expect that the registrar would try to contact the domain owner by phone or postal mail.[18] On February 28, 2007 GoDaddy offered to get the domain name back for the previous owner if he would indemnify GoDaddy from legal action by the new registrant.[19] GoDaddy stated that the new owner paid $18.99 for the domain, the price of a backorder, not a regular registration.[19]

On November 2, 2007, Domain Name Wire reported that it appears that GoDaddy no longer cancels domains for invalid whois.[20] The editor on Domain Name Wire received a message from a reader who is trying to acquire a domain with obviously false whois information.[20] The message from GoDaddy said "The domain has been suspended due to invalid Whois. The domain will remain in suspension through expiration, including the registry’s redemption period, unless the owner updates the contact information before that time."[20]


[edit] Shutdown of Chinese dissidents' sites
In 2007, several websites critical of the human rights abuses in People's Republic of China were shut down by Go Daddy, possibly under the pressure of the PRC government. Go Daddy denied any political involvement in the shutdown.[21][22]


[edit] Cancelled initial public offering
On April 12, 2006, Marketwatch reported that Go Daddy Group Inc., had hired Lehman Brothers to manage an initial stock offering that could raise more than $100 million and value the company at several times that amount.[2] On May 17, 2006 Go Daddy filed an S-1 registration statement prior to an initial public offering.[23] On August 8, 2006 Bob Parsons, CEO of Go Daddy, announced that after some serious consideration, Go Daddy was not going to go public and that he had withdrawn the company's IPO filing.[24]


[edit] References
^ RegistrarStats
^ Berr, Jonathan. "Go Daddy Gets Sued", TheStreet.com, 6/21/2006.
^ Mills, Elinor. "Domain registrars in court", News.com, June 19, 2006.
^ Small, Robert L.. "My Company Report on GoDaddy"", 2005-09-24. Retrieved on 2007-01-14.
^ "GoDaddy.com Donates $10K to Open Source Development Project". Press release.
^ "Radio GoDaddy Rebranded to Life Online(TM) With Bob Parsons". Press release.
^ The 2005 Inc. 500 Profiles. Inc.com. Retrieved on 2007-02-04.
^ Parsons, Bob (2007-03-30). Our GoDaddy-esque marketing. Why I keep it edgy. Our 2nd GoDaddy-esque video cast.. BobParsons.com. Retrieved on 2007-04-10.
^ http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6930045/
^ http://www.wwe.com/shows/raw/2085820
^ Elliot, Stuart. "Super Bowl Ads of Cartoonish Violence, Perhaps Reflecting Toll of War", The New York Times, February 5, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-02-07. "Another Super Bowl, another cheesy commercial for GoDaddy, the Web site registrar operated by the GoDaddy Group. This time, there was a wild party in the office of the GoDaddy marketing department. “Everybody wants to work in marketing,” a character says with a smirk. Hey, GoDaddy, go get Mommy — maybe she knows how to make a halfway decent Super Bowl spot. Agency: created internally."
^ Nimouse (pseudonym), Anna. "Not-So-Super Ads", The National Review, February 6, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-02-07. "The Go Daddy commercial that garnered enormous reaction (much negative) last year, with the buxom babe wearing a skimpy T-shirt with the logo across her chest, was tame in comparison to the raunchy, “Girls-Gone-Wild” style of this year’s advertisement. The fact that the ad caused such a stir last year probably helped determine the content of this one."
^ Lippert, Barbara. "Barbara Lippert's Critique: The Morning After", Adweek, February 05, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-02-07.
^ Search Marketing Scorecard (PDF). Reprise Media. Retrieved on 2007-02-07.
^ IAG Research (February 7, 2007). "IAG Research Announces Top Super Bowl Ad". Press release. Retrieved on 2007-02-07.
^ McCullagh, Declan. "GoDaddy pulls security site after MySpace complaints", CNET's News.com, January 25, 2007.
^ Singel, Ryan; Kevin Poulsen (29 January 2007). GoDaddy, Meet NoDaddy. Wired.com Blog 27B Stroke 6. Retrieved on 2007-02-05.
^ a b c d Domain Name Wire. "GoDaddy Deletes Domain Name for Inaccurate Email Address." February 27, 2007.
^ a b Domain Name Wire. "GoDaddy Responds to Deletion Over Invalid Email Address." February 28, 2007.
^ a b c Domain Name Wire. "Has GoDaddy Done a 180 on Invalid Whois?" November 2, 2007.
^ http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=23349
^ http://www.epochtimes.com/gb/7/8/20/n1807940.htm
^ Go Daddy makes name for itself growing in Gilbert, going public
^ http://www.bobparsons.com/WhyIPOPulled.html